Tag Archives: yogis

As this year, 2013, has been all about LOVE (2013, the year of LOVE), I have been noticing the things that go along with LOVE…things like beauty, gratitude, joy and contentment…just to name a few. I have been noticing these other things because I feel happily ensconced in Love, so I am aware of these other things (often) floating around with it…as well as noticing those things floating (or not) around other people.

The biggie for me right now is beauty. Beauty came apparent a few months ago when I was asked if I think I am beautiful by the very beautiful Jen, over at Peace and Hotness. I realised that in order to FEEL beauty in myself, I needed to SEE beauty in everything else!! Beauty became something that abounds around me!!! I cannot tell you how many amazingly beautiful things I saw and witnessed on my travels to Europe! From rolling hills of grape vines, to ancient cities of the Romans, to cathedrals built over 300 years, to the marriage of my brother in a vineyard in Tuscany. Beauty abounds when we choose to see it. I also started choosing to see everyone around me as beautiful and began taking that belief and intention into my teaching with me. My goal is, through me seeing my students as perfect and beautiful, they will see themselves as perfect and beautiful.

Joy, I believe, is our birthright. We are brought into this world of material things and amazingly intelligent beings, with all sorts of things to fuck us up along the way of our path. When we first get here, we are pure and bright and exactly perfect by design. And then we go and get totally turned around from everything that is put in our path. The joy that we bring with us gets dimmer and dimmer and dimmer until all we feel is this sludge of having to go through the trials and tribulations of this world. Uhm, tell me, if you can, why would we be brought into this world if our only job was to “just get through it”…

Hahaha, I’ve almost rendered myself speechless with that thought!! Think about it…look at the people you know in your own life who seem miserable. You know, the ones that have a job they hate, or a relationship that isn’t awesome, or they live in a world filled with angst and anger sun-up to sun-down…yes, maybe they have moments of joy, moments of brightness…but maybe the balance is off…?

I didn’t used to believe that we could live in a level balance. I believed that, in order for me to feel the high highs of joy and bliss, then I also needed to be balanced and feel the low lows of rejection, anger, loss, etc. Then, with a little help of my meditation teacher and the new things I was starting to practice, I came to understand that we can live in a level balanced ground.

Originally, I thought living this way meant living in a COMA!! Ha, yes, I thought if I were going to be “level” then what the hell was going to happen? I would be…boring? No lows, but no highs? I lived for the highs!! I hated the lows, but learned through the years how to handle them…how to give myself a few days of depression or what have you…knowing that as bad as it was in the moment, that this moment will pass and all will be clear when the time is right. But to give up the highs of excitement and brilliance and fun…well, it took me more than one week to get this one under my belt (and, btw, I am of course still working on it 😉 ). I began to realise that living in this level balanced place didn’t mean giving up the highs and the lows completely, but it meant that I didn’t have to exist in them, I could simply pass through them, experience them, and then return to my happy level ground. And you know what started happening? This place I existed in, a blank slate, began to be the place where I started seeing the beauty around me and feeling gratitude for. It wasn’t giant events that I needed in order to feel joy…I began feeling joy in the everyday things I experienced…my tea in the morning became something to be so thankful for, I chose to eat only things that brought me a gratitude for the experience and so started eating only delicious things!! My yoga practice has become something that I love to experience, and appreciate so deeply (corny, I know, but alas so true!).

I think you get the idea.

So here’s the deal…this is not a new concept and it is likely not going to be the first time you have heard this…but read it carefully…

It is not a thing you will do or get that is going to make your life how you want it. It’s the steps you take and the things that occur along the way that are making you who you are and creating the life you so desire.

I am a biiiiig believe in visualization. I believe that visualization is the pathway to manifestation and creation. If I don’t have a picture (mentally AND tangibly!) of something that I am working on manifesting (yoga postures, life goals, material items) then my power continues to lie dormant, waiting for something to grab onto and begin to create. When I can create a picture, and then can see myself doing/having these things, then it’s almost like I already AM doing/having these things!! There have been many studies done with people proving that they cured themselves of various illnesses using the power of the mind (here is a research article by John Keyhoe, an inspirational speaker on mind power and creating our reality). If people are able to visualize themselves into remission etc, then imagine what else is possible and available to us!!!

So, you see, my loves, the goal of love for this year has shown me that it’s the ways of expressing and receiving love that are what is making this year the YEAR OF LOVE. It’s the gratitude I feel when I am able to use my body for yoga, and the sensory explosion I feel when I eat something really delicious and the joy I feel when I see my dog run and play at his favourite park. It’s these things along the path to the goals that are what is making my life…when I believe that I exist in all the things I can imagine, then guess what…I really DO exist in them already!!

So, that’s what I’ve got for you today, puppies. Have a fab day, see what happens when you use your brain today…